The Great Rift War
The Great Rift War was a massive invasion of Earth by the forces of the Infinite Dominion, occurring after the Caerus Incident and towards the tail end of the Portal Storms. It resulted in the deaths of billions of humans, the crushing defeat of most mobilized military forces, and the complete capitulation of the planet to the invaders. Events Leading up to the War Prior to the war, an incident had caused an interdimensional rift of some sort. As a result of this, the so-called portal storms began occurring across the world. These storms unleashed alien creatures upon an unprepared populace. A few did not attack humans, preferring to stay hidden with their own kind. However, most other alien life forms proved to be an immediate threat. In the tail end of the portal storms, surviving members of an alien army that had existed on another world emerged, unleashing destruction in their wake. The widespread death and suffering caused by these incidents forced the governments and militaries of Earth into overdrive to try to secure their populations from the alien onslaughts. The conclusion was made to attempt to secure major cities, and attempt to move as many people as possible into them, at least until the anomalous incidents came to an end. Unfortunately, the evacuation orders had only just began to go out when the Infinite Dominion made its move. The Invasion The interdimensional rift opened by the Caerus incident acted as a window that the Universal Union was able to peer through. It was at that point that Earth was doomed, as the Universal Union consistently seeks to conquer each world it comes into contact with. As the portal storms began to decrease in intensity, the Union staged an invasion force. On the 13th of September, they opened their own interdimensional portals, flooding Earth with huge masses of troops. Their assaults largely took place in the vicinity of many of the cities that were being used as civilian safe zones. The battles waged were brutally intense, but the militaries of Earth found themselves overrun in very short order. With Union forces sweeping through defensive lines and decimating attempted counterattacks, most of the world's militaries had been broken after five hours. On the seventh hour, the world was told that Earth had officially been surrendered to the Universal Union, thus officially ending the war. Aftermath While Earth had officially surrendered and the chains of command of most militaries had broken down, surviving bands of soldiers tried to keep fighting. Civilian-formed militias such as the Patriot Underground in the US, The People's Front in China, and the European Coalition also tried to defend their homelands, but in the face of an apparently infinite enemy, they stood no chance. These groups continued to be hunted down and wiped out by Dominion forces in the weeks that followed the initial invasion. An attempted nuclear counterstrike by US forces in North Dakota resulted in disaster when the Dominion remotely tampered with the missile guidance systems in flight, resulting in the decimation of much of the American midwest. The Dominion then followed the trajectories back to their source and destroyed the base. Skirmishes raged on with the Chinese and Indian militaries, who had retreated to the Himalayan mountains, but they were largely wiped out in a few days, and those who survived didn't last long due to lack of supplies. The Dominion began using their portals to bring in the materials they would use in reshaping a number of cities. Most of the survivors of the invasion were forced into these cities, which became increasingly cramped. Within the first few years of the Dominion occupation, it is estimated that around 3 billion people may have died due to either lack of supplies in the areas outside the controlled cities, or due to direct genocide by the Union perpetrated to make the population easier to control. With the utter decimation that befell the militaries of Earth, no one was particularly interested in taking on the Dominion for some time after the initial invasion. However, in spite of claims to the contrary made by loyalists appointed to be figureheads by the Dominion, some people realized that the Dominion's intentions for the people of Earth were anything but good. As a result, resistance groups such as the Earth Liberation Front began to form, clinging to whatever corners of the world in which they could find refuge and bringing survivors of previously existing resistance groups back into the fight. These resistance groups did not usually engage Dominion forces directly if they could help it, knowing that doing so would generally not end well. Any attacks that did take place involved either striking caravans, or quick hit and run attacks. On the other hand, Dominion occupational forces generally did not actively pursue resistance groups as they were largely considered too small and insignificant to be a threat, though occasionally some groups would be destroyed for the sake of propaganda and to make an example of those who would not comply. Over the years, however, at least one Dominion occupational group would take a far more proactive approach. The Dominion occupation was marked by cramped living spaces, ongoing propaganda, and a constant state of fear for most citizens. The Dominion engaged in a number of social and physical experiments with the surviving humans, and tortured and killed many. Their rule was brutal, harsh, and hated by virtually all citizens, but it continued completely unchallenged for over 8 years. Category:Conflicts